Digital literature taking books from dead trees to electronic screens

by Colin Hogan of The Daily Mustang

As Katrina Sainz curls up in her chair to read a novel, she is greeted by an image of her favorite author, Malcolm Gladwell. His photo is set as the background on the screen of her Kindle, a digital reading device from Amazon.com. Tonight she’s in the mood for The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, so she selects the novel from a list and it instantly displays the page where she left off.

A half an hour later, she decides to change books, so she navigates to Amazon’s digital bookstore, right from her Kindle. After a few minutes of reading customer reviews and comparing prices, she makes her choice. It downloads wirelessly and is ready to read in about 60 seconds.

“It’s really easy,” the Southern Methodist University senior said. “You can hold it the same way, it feels just like a book.”

Sainz is just one of millions of readers who have made the leap to digital. E-book sales are steadily increasing and more than three million eReaders are expected to be sold in 2009, according to Forrester Research. And the devices offer more benefits than ever: wireless access to digital bookstores, electronic ink displays, and increased portability. All of this advancement begs the question: Are books going away?

When Sony introduced the first modern eReader in 2006, digital literature was a niche market. Since then, however, the industry has grown substantially, with dozens of start-up companies launching their own versions of the device. Amazon’s Kindle is the clear leader in the category, claiming a 60 percent market share. 2009 looks to be a breakout year for eReaders. Barnes & Noble is expected to launch its own device as early as next month, and many analysts are predicting sales of all eReaders to double from last year.

Dwight Jewson, president of Strategic Frameworking Inc., a consulting firm located outside of Seattle, is an early adopter and heavy user of the Kindle. An avid reader who is never content with sticking with one book at a time, Jewson enjoys the flexibility of being able to switch between different books and articles, all from the same device. On a given trip, he usually switches between mystery books, biographies, and books on current economics. With the Kindle, he can access whatever book fits his mood.

“The freedom of choice to read what I’m in the mood to read is big for me,” Jewson said.

Yet for some, using the latest technology is not always the ideal way to read. Matt Fedel, an undergraduate student at Texas A&M, is skeptical of reading the digital way.

“I think people love the tangibility of turning the page instead of just scrolling through,” Fedel said.

Others, like SMU senior Kelly Pearson, miss the experience that buying books was before she bought her eReader.

“I miss the way they smell,” Pearson said. “Just walking into a bookstore and finding a book, I really enjoy that.”

These intangible benefits are what retailers such as Half-Price Books are relying on to keep their business model afloat.

“People are always going to want the feel of a book, the smell of a book, the experience that comes with reading an actual book in front of you,” said Megan Kuntz, public relations specialist for Half-Priced Books.

The company is taking a different approach to this growing trend than giant retailer Barnes & Noble, which recently launched an addition to their website that sells e-books. Instead, Half-Price Books is taking the more traditional route, relying on the company’s unique relationship with its customers. Because the retailer buys and sells used, as well as new, books, each store is individually tailored to its community. Localization means different books are offered at different stores.

“I’d say the plan for now is to stay on the path we’re on,” Kuntz said. “It seems to work for the customers, and we’re having success in the communities we’re involved in.”

But the appeal of new technology is always difficult to resist. Jewson describes the freedom of an e-book as a kind of “positive impulsivity” that allows him instant no hassle access to whatever information comes to mind. The technology enables him to listen to a book review on NPR and then download and read it a minute later if he wants. So if he realizes that he doesn’t have anything to read before a long flight, he can simply download a new volume online and begin reading before takeoff.

“To me, not having a stack of books on hand is like having an empty fridge,” Jewson said.

The digitization of printed books also has potential implications for libraries. At SMU, for instance, the university libraries began offering digital copies of books online more than five years ago, through a program called Net Library. This shift has freed up shelf space and allows students to access research materials from anywhere, 24/7.

Melanie Golder, a research librarian at SMU’s Fondren Library Center, believes that electronic texts are here to stay.

“In the library world, we’re trying to meet students where they are,” Golder said. “And today that’s on their computers.”

According to a recent Boston Globe article, one prep school in Massachusetts even went so far as to replace its traditional library with electronic versions of all of its books. Golder calls the move premature.

“It’s been a slow process to move from paper only to a mix of paper and digital copies,” Golder said. “It’s another process to go from a mix to just electronic books.”

It is debatable whether traditional paper books will ever be replaced by their digital counterparts. There are plenty of reasons for people to still prefer to buy paperbacks and hardcover instead of downloading an e-book online. But for consumers who are intrigued by the idea of books going beyond traditional text, the future of reading is likely to go even beyond what today’s e-books offer.

According to Jewson, the question is how electronic books will open the door for literature to be supplemented by other forms of media.

“As they change form and become a combination of pictures, sounds, and text, 15 years from now it will be a different story because an eBook won’t just be a digitized version of print,” Jewson said. “It will be a whole different animal.”